Finally, Tatas begin work at Singur

Work on the ambitious Rs 1,000-cr car project finally begins at Singur to roll out Ratan Tata's dream "people's car".

Overcoming uncertainty following a prolonged political controversy over allotment of land, the Tatas on Sunday started work on their ambitious Rs 1,000 crore project to produce cars worth just Rs 1 lakh.

After obtaining necessary clearances from the West Bengal authorities, Tata Motor officials performed a puja at the construction site in the presence of state government officials for the project that is expected to roll out Ratan Tata's dream "people's car" by next year.

Undeterred by the agitation against the project, Ratan Tata had announced in December that the group would not pull out of the state while blaming corporate rivals for fuelling the controversy.

Immediately after the construction work started, a Tata spokesperson from Mumbai said "the small car will be launched as planned in the calendar year 2008 and already a number of vendors for the project have been identified."

Caught unawares, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Partho Chaterjee, said "This cannot be done keeping in mind the prohibitory orders enforced. This shows that the project does not have the peoples' support."